Farewell To A Hero

"The price of gas in Texas is now so high that women who want to run over their husbands have to carpool." - Molly Ivins, 7/3/03

If it weren't for Molly Ivins, I can tell you that this blog would not exist. And it's quite possible that if it weren't for Molly Ivins, I probably would never have given politics a second thought.

As I grew up, the journalists I watched and heard who embodied what I thought was important about the craft of journalism (and that is what it is, first and foremost) were named Cronkite, Brinkley, Rather, Chancellor, Wallace, Reasoner and a few others, and in college, I grew to understand the importance of Murrow and other broadcasting pioneers in reporting the news to help us better understand our own country and the world. These people of course were larger than life to me for a time, representing some higher ideal (which they achieved at times in their work). And I'll admit that the fact that they are and were men was part of the equation also - we eventually leave such childish ways behind, to paraphrase St. Paul.

But Molly Ivins was one of the very first journalists I ever encountered (possibly the first, now that I think of it) who blew away all of that pretense, reporting stories that mattered and making it plain that everything I had studied and heard about regarding politics and our government (namely, that we are the government and these individuals we elect work for us) was more true than I had ever realized. And the minute we abdicate that responsibility, then creatures like Tom DeLay, Rick Perry, Tom Craddick, and of course, Dubya and Turd Blossom ooze out of the muck and start taking over. And when they do, the favored few are extolled and everybody else is screwed (which Molly documented so well, working also with colleagues Lou Dubose on "Bushwhacked," which I read, as well as Jim Hightower).

And it is also important to note that, while people on the left such as Richard Cohen and Joe Klein (and even David Broder, who I thought was firmly in the middle ideologically) eventually co-opted themselves on behalf of the Repugs, Molly was eternally true to the populist, progressive cause.

Though she is gone now, her sterling work will stand as her most enduring testament, as well as her influence on many people interested in journalism, politics, and the past, present and future of this nation. And let the freepers and their acolytes feel self-satisfied now that she is gone, but they had best not enjoy their comfort for too long, for many others (including your humble narrator, in my own small way) have picked up the baton and will carry on (to say nothing of those yet-unknown souls who will do likewise).

I'll let her have the last word from the column I linked to above.

"A special salute to dog-lovers, cat-lovers, bird-lovers and animal-lovers generally. Bridge-players, golfers, people who have their palms read, Jenny Craig dieters, quilters, self-improvers everywhere, people who take salsa and line-dancing classes, home-tomato-growers, everybody whose garden produces too much zucchini (something to knit us together in this variegated nation) and those who are found at the Jiffy Mart at 2 a.m., buying stuff that is bad for their health. I love you all. It is, still, a great nation."

And here is a brief YouTube video of Molly and Hightower discussing Tom DeLay...



Thank you for everything, Molly, and may God grant you rest (and here is a tribute from John Nichols at The Nation).

Update 2/2: Here is a great remembrance from The Rude Pundit (h/t to Atrios) and here is an Eschaton link to Paul Krugman who observes that Molly pretty much called what was going to happen in Iraq before just about everyone else.

Update 1/31/10: More here.